The Girl with the Fire Heart
Chapter 18

Damon is furious. He knows he should demand answers from her, replace out where she's been and what she's been doing. He should be asking her why she smells of smoke and ash and rotting trash. He knows he should be doing something other than hold her to him, but the fear that had gripped him when he found out that Valentina had gone missing is still too fresh in his mind.

He got to Jonah's house as quickly as he could, not wanting to waste a single second looking for her. But everyone he spoke to knew nothing of her whereabouts, even less who she could have been with. It didn’t dawn on him that she could have been with her friends until he hears more footsteps quickly making their way to Jonah's home forcing him to pull away from Valentina.

What he sees infuriates him even more. Brielle and Callie stop when they see Valentina still tucked into Damon's side and their parents standing behind them. Damon can see the guilt and relief etched onto their faces and he knows that wherever Valentina had been, these two girls were responsible.

Before he can think his actions through, he pulls away from Valentina, and feels the water in his necklace rage. He feels the power of it tug at him, pushing into his hands and humming through the rest of his body to literally drown these girls for what they might have done. Instead, he lets the power roll over him, lets it settle in his hands as he stalks closer to the girls.

He pins them in place with an icy glare he guesses will haunt them for as long as they live and watches in almost sick satisfaction as they shrink into themselves. When he's a few feet away, for he doesn't trust himself to be close to them and not harm them, he speaks.

“Where did you take her?” he asks, his voice coated with barely restrained anger.

The girls stammer, but neither gives a clear response.

“Where,” he speaks over them. “Did you take her? One of you better answer me quickly before your stuttering forces my hand.”

Slowly, he lifts his hand to reveal a small tidal wave forming in his palm while he waits for their answer.

Callie is the first to respond.

“We are so sorry. We knew she was getting ready to go on a trip and she had been so busy over the last few days, well months really, and we hadn’t seen her so we took to the outskirts of town to the abandoned buildings to watch some village boys fight. We swear we meant no harm,” she practically reassures.

But Damon knows better. Valentina wouldn’t smell like smoke and ash unless she used her power. She was in enough danger to warrant her using her element to protect herself.

“What fight?” he hears his father ask. He turns and shoots his father a look. Joaquin shoots one back. He knows what that means without his father saying a word. Joaquin wants to get as much information as he can to determine what really happened. Joaquin subtly reminds his son not to do anything too rash until he has all the information at his disposal.

“A fight between two boys we went to school with. The boy with the marble heart and the boy with the granite heart, sir,” Brielle answers, fear lacing every syllable of her words.

“Why did you take her there?” Damon asks. His exasperation is obvious. “You must have known it would be dangerous if it was on the outskirts of town.”

“We thought she might enjoy witnessing half naked men pummeling each other into the concrete,” Brielle says shakily.

Damon freezes. He looks at Valentina out of the corner of his eye. He doesn't want to think about Valentina enjoying two shirtless men fighting but there's a part of him that is unsure.

When he sees her clear shock at their intentions behind their plans with her for the day, he knows she isn't any happier about this than he is.

“You’re lying,” she says. Everyone stops at the accusation, but none more clearly than the two girls standing in front of them.

“No, no, we-” but Valentina cuts them off.

“He recognized me. The boy with the marble heart recognized me. He was waiting for my arrival before ending the fight with the boy with the granite heart. I know this because the boy with the marble heart was one of the few who was actually kind to me in school. You both know this. I didn’t know the boy with the granite heart. He didn’t even look my way. But the boy with the marble heart knew exactly where I was standing. You’re lying,” she said.

Damon allows this information to wash over him. When it settles in his mind, he notes the shame that crosses both girls’ faces. They are hiding something. Before he can interject with questions, Valentina speaks again.

“I was being chased by a man with a black ironwood heart. That’s the strongest of its kind. He chased me all the way to the divide. I was tackled by the boy with the marble heart. Did you know that? Did you see it? Or did you orchestrate it and then hide when I ran from the fight because I didn’t want to be there and you didn’t want me to know what you had done? I had to knock down a pillar because of the man with the black ironwood heart,” Valentina says, her voice rising in outrage as she speaks.

He looks over to replace her hands glowing with barely restrained fire. If he doesn't remind her to get under control, he worries she might do irreparable damage.

She seems to have sensed his warning because she closes her eyes and sees her tapping her fingers one at a time, each one hitting her palm in a steady beat to center her, just the way he taught her. He smiles despite himself. She really has been paying attention during their lessons. She's been paying attention to him, too.